Two suspected Mafia bosses are pictured greeting each other with a kiss - a show of unwavering loyalty captured by Italian police surveillance cameras.

The footage is part of information gathered during a two-year investigation, codenamed 'Operation Apocalypse' that targeted Mafia families in Sicily.

It culminated in the arrest of 91 suspected Mafia figures as part of an alleged extortion racket operation based in western parts of Palermo, the island's capital and largest city.

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Two suspected mob bosses kiss each other in a show of loyalty. The image comes from surveillance footage from the operation released by Italian police

Suspected Mafia members are captured speaking to each other about a shooting on a street in Palermo as part of 'Operation Apocalypse' launched by Italian police

Two men discuss the police investigation into organised crime - codenamed 'Apocalisse' in Italian

Extortion,
money laundering and drug trafficking are among the offences alleged by
the Palermo Anti-Mafia Investigation Department, which co-ordinated the
operation - codenamed Apocalypse or Apocalisse in Italian.

'There
hasn't been a dragnet on this scale in many years,' finance police
Colonel Calogero Scibetta told Reuters. 'These arrests have wiped out
two entire mob families.'

In recent years police have dealt severe blows to the Sicilian Mafia, historically Italy's most
powerful criminal group while 'Ndrangheta, which operates out of Calabria at the southern end of the Italian mainland, has grown in
strength by becoming a big importer of cocaine.

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Footage captured by police during their investigation shows suspected Mafia members meeting in various public locations in Palermo.

In the screenshots taken from the video, captions reveal the suspects talking about the family, a shooting - and even the police investigation.

One of
those arrested in the operation had boasted that his great-uncle killed a
New York City police officer dispatched to Sicily in 1909.

Domenico Palazzotto, 28, said his family had celebrated the
100th anniversary of the notorious murder of New York policeman Giuseppe 'Joe' Petrosino who was killed in 1909.

Two suspected mobsters, whose names have been written in white next to them in this image released by Italian police, say that 'it is wrong to talk about it'

Bullets seized by police from suspected mafia members during the two-year long investigation into the organised crime families

Two masked police officers lead a suspect into an undercover car as part of their sweep

The prosecution delivers a press conference on the Mafia arrests. Extortion, money laundering and drug traficking are among the offences alleged by the Palermo Anti-Mafia Investigation Department

Palazzotto
was overheard in a recent intercepted phone conversation telling a
colleague that 'the uncle of my father was called Paolo Palazzotto; he
killed the top policeman killed in Palermo' on the orders of Don Vito
Cascio Ferro.

Cascio Ferro, who died in 1943, was a 'godfather' in Sicilian Mafia, whose operations extended to the Black Hand - the Mafia's American counterpart.

Police described the boast as an attempt by Palazzotto to establish his Mafia 'pedigree'.

The details of the conversation were contained in the 872-page arrest warrant published today.

The arrests come after Pope Francis shone a spotlight on the evils of Italian organised crime last weekend.

During a trip to Calabria he said the 'Ndrangheta - a global drug trafficking syndicate and brother organisation to the Sicilian Mafia - was an example of the 'adoration of evil and contempt of the common good' and said mafia members were excommunicated from the Church.

THE BRAVE NYPD LIEUTENANT WHO WAS 'KILLED' BY THE SICILIAN MAFIA

Murdered: Lieutenant Giuseppe 'Joe' Petrosino who was sent back to his native Italy on a special mission to investigate the Mafia in 1909

Lieutenant Giuseppe 'Joe' Petrosino, an NYPD officer, was sent back to his native Italy in 1909 on a special mission to investigate criminal ties between the Sicilian Mafia and its increasingly powerful American counterpart, the Black Hand.

Specifically, he was to collect evidence against Black Hand's alleged boss Don Vito Cascio Ferro, a Mafia 'godfather' who had gone into hiding in his native Sicily after being acquitted from murder charges in the US a few years earlier.

Back in New York, Petrosino was in charge of an elite all-Italian squad that investigated the underworld of Italian migrants.

He went on the mission despite being warned of the threat to his safety. A few days prior to his departure, American press published details of his mission - which was meant to be secret.

Shortly after his arrival in Palermo, Petrosino was shot four times by unknown attackers in the city centre, where he was supposed to meet an informant.

Cascio Ferro and Paolo Palazzotto were picked up by police after the shooting but were released due to lack of evidence.

The identity of the killer has remained a mystery for more than 100 years.

Clips show how Lieutenant Petrosino's murder was covered by Italian newspapers in 1909